Matia Bazar

Matia Bazar have already taken part in the Sanremo Italian Song Festival eleven times, winning on two occasions (in 1978 with the song “…E dirsi Ciao” and in 2002 with “Messaggio d’Amore”), and they have received the “Critics’ Award” twice (in 1983 with “Vacanze Romane” and in 1985 with “Souvenir”).
The line-up is the same as that which last won the Sanremo Festival, featuring GIANCARLO GOLZI, PIERO CASSANO, SILVIA MEZZANOTTE and FABIO PERVERSI. This is a new artistic project with an international scope, launched just over a year ago, which led to the release of the album “Conseguenza Logica” (produced by Bazar Music and distributed by Universal Music) that has also enjoyed success abroad (where Matia Bazar were and still are among the main ambassadors of great Italian music with a string of hits that have featured
in the charts of numerous countries worldwide). The album will be re-issued to coincide with the Sanremo Festival with the addition of two new songs: SEI TU,
which the band are presenting at the Festival and Noi siamo il Mondo, making a total of 15 tracks of refined, sophisticated pop in the inimitable Matia Bazar style, mostly written by Piero Cassano, Adelio Cogliati and Giancarlo Golzi. The duo of Cassano-Cogliati, writers of some of Eros Ramazzotti’s biggest hits, is thus
brought together once again. The record also sees the contribution of Fabio Perversi, Beppe Andreetto, and Massimo De Divitiis (from the band “I Neri per Caso”) and the much-valued collaboration of Massimiliano Pani. AL JARREAU will be the ‘guest of honour’ on the stage of the Ariston Theatre as part of this classy, sophisticated project which, now more than ever, looks to the international market. During the “Viva l’Italia” evening, Matia Bazar will perform a duet with the great American artist and sing “Speak Softly Love”, the world-famous
theme-song from the movie “The Godfather”, a choice enthusiastically supported by the Festival’s Artistic Director Gianmarco Mazzi and the presenter Gianni Morandi. Matia Bazar will be the most internationally-renowned of the Italian artists taking part in the 2012 Sanremo Festival. The figures and the band’s history speak volumes: the hit “Solo Tu”, at the beginning of their career,
made it into half of Europe’s charts, selling over two million copies, and in a number of countries on the American continent it even reached number one! The tracks Tu Semplicità (in Spanish “Tu oh la Sencillez”) and Stasera che Sera were distributed and sold all over Europe, Japan and South America (where Spanish versions were recorded) and their tours reached as far as Jerusalem, Beirut and Gaza, at the time still war zones.
The 1980s saw Matia Bazar as among the forerunners of “made-in-Italy electronic music”, famed around the world.
With the single Vacanze Romane and the album Tango, among the top-selling 100 records according to Rolling Stone magazine, they topped the charts in Germany and Holland and went on an extensive world tour. With the song Ti Sento (also recorded in English for the international market and covered by numerous artists worldwide, from Sweden to South America) and the album Melanchòlia they sold millions of records and went on yet another long European tour, consolidating their international fame. During an event at the Campidoglio Palace in 2006 they received the prestigious “Personalità Europea”
(European Personality) award in recognition of their uninterrupted success abroad. Matia Bazar’s career includes a participation in the Eurofestival, where they represented Italy, another at the Viña del Mar International Festival in Chile plus appearances at major music events in Japan (where they shared the stage
with rock stars like Freddie Mercury), all over Europe and in the Middle East. In Canada they played in front of 30,000 people and, in the last ten years alone, they have played countless concerts abroad and at hundreds of events.
Still today, Matia Bazar are among the most famous international artists in the former Soviet Union, in Eastern Europe and European countries in general and, in particular, in Germany where the single “Ti Sento” has been successfully covered by many artists (among the most recent covers is Scooter’s techno-hardcore version which topped the British and German charts). Last December, Matia Bazar appeared in two of the most popular French TV music shows – “Les Année Bonheur” and “80’s Generation”. One of the little known anecdotes about their activity outside Italy concerns the (unfinished) project with producer Connie Plank, the man behind the success of Kraftwerk and Ultravox: an international album Plank was very keen to produce, which unfortunately never saw the light of day due to the band’s previous contractual commitments.